Abstract

Reprogramming of a donor cell genome during somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is largely dependent on appropriate expression of 'pluripotency'? genes, such as Oct-4 (POU5F1). Recently, we transfected bovine fetal fibroblasts with GOF18-ΔPE-EGFP, a reporter gene construct for the Oct-4 promoter and assessed the expression of Oct-4 after SCNT (Wuensch et al. 2006 Reprod. Fertil. Dev. 18, 144). Our previous study on DNA methylation reprogramming revealed that rabbit in vivo-fertilized and cloned embryos differ from bovine embryos in respect to this epigenetic modification (Shi et al. 2004 Biol. Reprod. 71, 340–347), suggesting differences in the mechanism of epigenetic reprogramming between these two species. In this study, we tested whether GOF18-ΔPE-EGFP could be used to monitor Oct-4 expression in rabbit cloned embryos. The reporter gene construct included the EGFP gene flanked by a 9-kb fragment of the murine Oct-4 upstream region with a deletion in the proximal enhancer (PE) and a 9-kb fragment containing the nontranscribed murine structural Oct-4 gene. The 21.2-kb fragment GOF18-DPE-EGFP was released from the vector backbone by NotI digestion and purified with QIAquickGel Extraction Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) after gel electrophoresis. Four stable transfected colonies of rabbit fetal fibroblasts (RFF), none of which exhibited green fluorescence, were used for SCNT. The resulting embryos were examined on Days 2–5 by fluorescence microscopy. To detect endogenous Oct-4 expression, in vivo-fertilized embryos were stained with anti-mouse Oct-3 antibody and then incubated with secondary Alexa 488-conjugated goat anti-mouse antibody. The most prominent endogenous Oct-4 expression was detected in in vivo-fertilized embryos at the morula and blastocyst stages. Depending on the donor cell line used for nuclear transfer, cleavage and blastocyst rates ranged from 56 to 97% and from 33 to 49%, respectively. When a total of 230 cloned embryos at the 2-to 16-cell stages and 93 cloned morulae and blastocycts were examined by fluorescence microscopy, none of the examined embryos exhibited fluorescence signals indicating the lack of Oct-4 promoter activity. Taking into account the fact that both cloned and in vivo-fertilized rabbit embryos have specific patterns of DNA methylation reprogramming, which are different from that of bovine embryos, we injected GOF18-ΔPE-EGFP gene constructs into pronuclei of in vivo-fertilized zygotes. None of the 74 injected embryos, which were examined at the 2-cell to blastocyst stages, showed fluorescence signals. Our results demonstrate that rabbit nuclear transfer and in vivo-fertilized embryos are unable to activate a mouse Oct-4 promoter-reporter construct. Potential reasons include incompatibilities between mouse Oct-4 promoter sequences and rabbit transcription factors as well as specific mechanisms of epigenetic reprogramming in the rabbit.